The ACC has promoted the Champs Bowl in Orlando as its third place destination after talks with the Gator Bowl fell apart. What happened with the Gator?
Well it seems that the folks in Jacksonville rejected the "one-wine" rule (aka the "BC rule"). For those who are not familiar with the "BC rule" it means that a bowl cannot bypass a team and select a team two wins behind them in the standings. Example: a BC team with a 5-3 conference record was available to the Gator. The Gator could still select a team with a 4-4 record, but not a team that's 3-5 in the ACC.
This rule was instituted after BC got dropped all the way to Boise in our first year in the conference. Despite it being attached to us, most of the ACC supports the concept as it adds some level of meritocracy to the selection process. Without out the rule, the big travelers (Clemson, FSU, VT and NC State) would go to best bowls before the Miamis and BCs of the conference.
I am sorry to see the Gator go but glad the conference took a stand. Plus the Champs Bowl was a good time in 2007.
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21 comments:
Sorry this comment has nothing to do with your post on the Gator bowl but is anyone as insulted or annoyed as I am about all the hoopla surrounding Bowden because he lost to BC. I heard Mel Kiper on the radio yesterday and he said that FSU should not have lost to BC, an "average" team. Since when is losing to BC a humiliating or program-diminishing event?
Not insulted about Bowden thing. We are not ranked, and Clemson proved that we were average, if not poor. We are, however, improving weekly and have not plateaued.
It's just the straw that broke the camel's back. FSU's record hasn't been this bad since 1976 or something like that.
"Since when is losing to BC a humiliating or program-diminishing event?"
Well Sujit since, um, always. Name me a time you have been Top-10 in the preseason AP Poll, or in the Top-10 of the national recruiting rankings after Signing Day. Oh you can't, can you. Of course not. So show some respect to the experts. Fact is, what Kiper was doing was bemoaning the fact that yet another coaching staff was going to get vaporized due to BC's uppityness. It happened to Davie, Willingham, Gailey, and Tommy Bowden. Now you're after Bobby Bowden??? What kind of people ARE you???
As far as the Gator Bowl thing, it's about time a bowl said: No More. Never Again!!! It is simply ridiculous to allow someone like Boston College(!!!) to keep pressuring the esteemed volunteers who run these opportunities for young student-athletes over something so trivial and random as a "won-loss record". Staffs at places like FSU and Clemson text moment after moment, text day after day, and private jet week after week to ensure they get the most heralded players in the nation. These players, heralded in the cutting-edge journalistic publications that have covered them since 8th grade (no thanks to one Mr. Chris Hansen), have earned the stage afforded by the adulation they get at what you jealous people call the "factories". Maybe you people can adjust to a "lowly" bowl, but these young men cannot and should not.
Mr. Catlett's Konica Minolta Gator Bowl, and Mr. Bennett's Chick-fil-a Bowl (not "Peach" bowl, Yankees) offer a stage befitting to the reputations these young people have built. Mr. Catlett, Mr. Bennett and their volunteers put in countless hours reviewing the preseason publications to develop a sense of who matters in college football. They then give over Saturday after Saturday to build a rationale demonstrating that they are "scouring" the country. They are assessing your traveling reputation, the quality of your luxury box buffets, the aesthetic appeal of your fanbases, and the pillowsoftness of the hotels where you have put them up for the night (and no, the Westin at Copley Place will not do if you can't stroll over to Waffle House across the parking lot).
Look, be happy that you are ALLOWED to play with the more esteemed programs. Be happy that you have won the day on holding the criteria for entrance to the ACCCG to the mere won-loss record of a team. Even be happy that your unfair pressure has led to this insane "one-loss" rule. Just don't go crying when the good, dear people at the Konica Minolta Gator Bowl declare that some things are more important than the results on the field.
Observer:
Keep it pithy. We have other things to do.
BTW - What's your post-game plan for when ND loses again to BC this year? A couple of days of binge drinking? A day-long trip to Denny's in honor of Weis? Enlighten us.
Good for the ACC taking a stand against these bowls.
ObserverColelge...clever ...i liked your posting.
This southern chauvanism by the bowls is and has been sickening, and I don't think its just about money. There is more bias too it than that.
As for FSU, we beat them 3 out of last 5 years. Who the heck do they think they are complaining about losing to us -- ND!!! (the parallels between ND and FSU are striking and the unmitigated arrogance of both these quickly fading stars is hysterical)
Um, Eagle1, Observer's posts drip with sarcasm, perhaps? And truth.
I dig it. I'm also drinking.
Bobby Bowden is actually doing radio interviews tomorrow on both of the big sports talk stations here in Atlanta as a result of all the hub-bub of the last three days.
I think the USF loss was the turning point. They've lost to us before on their downward spiral and it hasn't triggered this much reaction. Remember, they've never been 0-2 in the ACC before. It could've been a loss to Ga. Tech last week and I think the same thing would've happened. Could be wrong, though.
BC may indeed be an average team, but Kiper assumes FSU then is above-average. I think not.
The last time I checked...the bowls are private organizations in it to make money. Why would they make less money with a BC invite when they could make more with a Va. Tech or FSU invite? The Music City, Meineke Car Care, Champs, Carquest (no longer), Hall of Fame (no longer), etc. are southern bowls and have invited us since '92.
And though I do agree, based on experience, that there is a decided southern chauvinism from southern schools when it comes to football, we shouldn't feel too bad.
They do it to everyone.
Just gotta keep beating the teams the "experts" tell us we will lose to.
While we never would have been invited to the Gator Bowl, I can't help but wonder what other bowl games the ACC will come up with as a replacement. As of now, the ACC no longer plays the PAC-10 in the San Francisco Bowl (personally one of my favorite non-BCS bowls out there), nor does the ACC face a Big-12 team now that the Gator is gone. Mobile is no replacement for San Francisco and I can't think of anything out there that would be a suitable replacement for a New Year's Day bowl game.
I applaud the conference for standing up for itself, I'm just curious what we're going to end up with. Maybe Boise will take the ACC back?;)
I hope this is the first blow for the bowls in the quest to get a playoff. Only if the conferences take a stand against the flawed bowl system will things finally be the way they should. Until then a team with a lesser "name" will never have a chance to succeed. Its all about the name and how they travel. the polls that are consideredin the bcs shouldnt even be taken until the third or fourth week of the season. Its all skewed by peoples perception of what should happen not what will happen
ObserverCollege,
You can't possibly be this utterly stupid, can you?? What is with your blood thirst hatred of BC? If your truly a Notre Dame fan, you have absolutely NOTHING to say to us. We have completely owned you over the past decade plus. Yet you find the need to come to our boards and fire uninstigated venom. I've seen you do this on almost every BC related board there is from here, to ESPN, to others. If you dislike us so much, that’s fine. But keep it to the ND boards Pal.
You have proven time and time again you know absolutely nothing about college football. If a team continuously wins year in and year out, it's because they have a good program. Imagine how good BC would be if they took kids who could barely read & write and never went to classes, like your "factory" schools do.
I'm pretty sure Bobby Bowden has the utmost respect for BC, as does virtually every coach I've ever read about. Do they like losing to us? Of course not. Nobody likes losing to ANYONE. If the #2 team loses to the #1 team, they won't be happy about it. And as for these southern bowls making $? I'm sure some of them are thrilled when they take a Southern team where the fans can drive there, watch the game, then drive home. I've got news for you - when (not if, when) BC gets a major bowl down South, especially the Orange or Peach, the BC Alum will come out and travel in force. And, as a general rule, our Alums have a significant amount of disposable income. We won't be eating at fast food places and staying in super cheap motels. No, We'll be going to steakhouses and nice restaurants, dropping large amounts of cash and staying at top notch places.
Peace out.
EagleinNYC... pretty sure all ObserverCollege's posts are sarcastic... chill
I am utterly amazed that there are still BC fans out there unfamiliar with observer and his satiric schtick. He's been posting these amusing rants on here, EI, EO, EA, ESPN, and various ND boards for years now.
/sarcasm
Like the fire though from NYC.
Re: Observer's "satiric schtick."
He's over the top, but the guy absolutely is a ND fan who hates BC. He used to maintain a homepage that listed his favorite teams, and ND was listed. This is not some BC fan offering sarcasm to make his point. His blood boils with each annual loss of Our Ladies to the Eagles. I enjoy his literary diarrhea, especially knowing that it is rooted in pain and tears.
I don't think it is sarcasm or satire. I'm pretty sure he legitimately thinks these things. Either way, I've said my peace. I'm now chilled, lol Lets beat VT.
I hate any school that has the temerity to think it knows what's "best" for college athletics. There are a lot of actors involved in college athletics, far beyond those who compete on the field or on the court. I stand up for those actors. The people who INVEST in NCAA sports, who sponsor the athletic competitions. I also speak out for the people who undertake the financial risk of broadcasting said competitions. Remember, they don't just show the "games", but they also contribute so much to our student-athlete community through broadcasting previews, recaps, analysis, up close and personal profiles, and recruiting coverage that generates so much interest in the college sports.
I speak out for the ticket broker in Chicago, who lost thousands of dollars per ticket when you ruined ND's perfect season in 1993. I speak for the kid at Clemson who dreamed of taking his siblings to the hallowed city of Jacksonville for the ACC Championship Game. I cry out for the commentators who KNEW that Boston College was holding hostage the #2 place in the polls, and could not stand that their well-established preseason predictions were being subject to ridicule on the basis of fluke after fluke.
That's who I cry out for. If that makes me a "hater", well then, I hate away.
That 1993 victory was a thing of beauty.
Our new friend, ObserverCollege, does not appear to be a ND hack ... and his blogging profile says this guy is only blogging under this name since August 2009.
Goofing on ND and Clemson in one blog post is sweet!
Perhaps he is the Jonathan Swift of college blogs??
What Darius said.
@ Eagle1
You're wrong about OC being an ND guy. But its not a big deal.
Bowl bias has existed for at least 45 years. BC is lumped with a number of big named schools with the label "doesn't travel well." Surely the non-travelers outnumber the travelers. The BC rule should be adopted by all conferences in dealing with bowls. Bowls will not hold the upper hand in these negotiations forever.
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